World Watching Politics Archived # 11

A senior Thai general has told the BBC that last month’s military coup had not been planned in advance. It comes after an opposition leader claimed the army had been discussing overthrowing the government for years. Lt Gen Chatchalerm Chalermsukh also said those detained by the military since the coup were being treated well. And he said…

Ukraine foes cast doubt on ceasefire

Both sides in the Ukraine conflict have cast doubt on a newly called ceasefire, following the downing of a military helicopter on Tuesday. Pro-Russia separatist leader Alexander Borodai said that in his view “there has been no ceasefire”. And Ukraine’s PresidentPetro Poroshenko warned he may end the truce due to “constant…

VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press= DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) â?? Pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine agreed Monday to respect a cease-fire declared by the Ukrainian president, raising hopes for an end to months of fighting that have killed hundreds and ravaged the country’s industrial heartland. The announcement came as the Russian and U.S.…

Baghdad — Sunnimilitants have blitzed through the vast desert of western Iraq, capturing four towns and three border crossings and deepening the predicament of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad led by Nouri al-Maliki. The latest military victories – including two border posts captured Sunday, one along the frontier withJordan and the other…

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, left, examines a map at a military base close to Slovyansk, in eastern Ukraine. (Mykhailo Markiv / Associated Press)

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered a unilateral cease-fire Friday to give pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country a chance to lay down their arms in exchange for amnesty.

FIFA: 2014 World Cup TV ratings break records around the world

Ecuadorian soccer team fans react to their team scoring against the Honduras team as they watch on the screen setup at the Word Cup FIFA Fan Fest during on Copacabana beach June 2 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

7 Most Corrupt Countries in the World

Corruption is often cited as one of the biggest problems in governments across the world. Though many would like to dismiss it as a third-world problem or as an issue associated with the mobsters and gangsters of yesteryear, corruption is alive and kicking in more countries than you might think.

Transparency Inteds on a bigger share of the pie at any cost. Let’s take a closer look at the seven most corrupt countries in the world.rnational’s study of corruption found that two-thirds of the world’s nations scored below 50 on their corruption index, with the worst possible score being a 0 and the best, 100. While many developed countries posted fine scores — Denmark and New Zealand led the way, tied at 91 — a number of nations in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas lagged behind.

Oftentimes, the countries that experience the most corruption are those wracked by political and military strife. When conflicts occur, it becomes easier for government functions to break down, as everyone tries to get their hands on a bigger share of the pie at any cost. Let’s take a closer look at the seven most corrupt countries in the world.

7. Iraq

Lord Stern, the world’s most authoritative climate economist, has issued a stark warning that the financial damage caused by global warming will be considerably greater than current models predict. This makes it more important than ever to take urgent and drastic action to curb climate change by reducing carbon emissions, he argues. Lord Stern, who…

Washington is considering direct talks with Iran on the security situation in Iraq, a US official has told the BBC. The move comes as US PresidentBarack Obamaweighs up options on action to take in Iraq. Meanwhile the US condemned as “horrifying” photos posted online by Sunni militants that appear to show fighters massacring Iraqi…

Tony Blair last night accused critics of the war in Iraq of trying to “wilfully” claim the current crisis in the country is a result of the original invasion. In a 3,000-word essay, Mr Blair rejected claims that he was to blame, saying that if the West had not rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein, the crisis in the Middle East would be worse. “We have…

The 2014 Fifa World Cup begins on Thursday as hosts Brazil open the tournament against Croatia. The month-long tournament sees 32 nations compete for a place in the final in Rio on Sunday, 13 July. The opening match will be preceded by a ceremony in Sao Paulo that pays tribute to nature, people and football. “Let me tell you the time has…

Article by WN.com Correspondent DallasDarling If denying reality to preserve a certain view of the world always leads to disastrous consequences, so does trying to remake reality through a mistaken foreign policy, namely preemptive wars, military occupations and hypocritical activities. Even now as those on the right condemn President Barack Obama…

VOA News Heavily-armed militants stormed the main airport in Karachi, PakistanSunday, leading to a five-hour gun battle with police and soldiers that left 23 people dead. Officials say all 10 gunmen were either shot by police or blew themselves up…

During his whistle-stop tour of Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem last month, PopeFrancis invited presidents Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas to join him at the Vatican. “I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer,” he stated, and the key question that has been on the minds of many ecumenical commentators is whether there is…

Egypt’s president-elect, the former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, told Egyptians it is now “time to work” to rebuild the economy after he was officially declared the landslide winner of last week’s election, restoring a career military man to the country’s top office. Thousands celebrated in public squares around the country with cheers,…

Ukraine‘s president-elect. Petro Poroshenko. has promised to punish pro-Russian rebels who shot down an army helicopter in the east of the country, killing 14 soldiers, including a general. The country‘s newly elected leader called the separatists, who brought down the helicopter gunship in Slovyansk, “terrorists” and “bandits”. The fighters shot…

Edward Snowden gave his first U.S. television interview to NBC’s Brian Williams last night, almost one year after he was first revealed as the NSA contractor who leaked documents about the U.S. government’s digital surveillance techniques.

Snowden has been in Russia since the country granted him a one-year asylum last August. Since then, he’s come under considerable fire from U.S. officials, particularly from Congressman Mike Rogers, who has accused Snowden of working under Russian influence. Snowden contends that this isn’t true.

“I have no relationship with the Russian government at all,” he told Williams.

China’s Crackdown On Activists Utilizes New Tactics

Petro Poroshenko, who looks set to win Ukraine‘s presidential election, says he wants to “end war and bring peace”. Official results are expected on Monday but exit polls suggest the billionaire confectionary magnate has won the election with about 56% of the vote. He said his first step as president would be to visit the eastern…

AMMAN (Reuters) – Atop the hill of Tel Ahmar just a few kilometers from Israeli forces on the Golan Heights, Syrian Islamist fighters hoist the al Qaeda flag and praise their mentor Osama bin Laden. One of the men, a leader of al Qaeda’s NusraFront, compares their battlefield – a lush agricultural region where dead soldiers lie on the ground near…

Article by WN.com Correspondent DallasDarling “The history of our revolution,” wrote John Adams, “will be one continued lie from one end to the other.” Although his statement was followed by a spiteful attack against Benjamin Franklin andGeorge Washington-people would only remember Dr. Franklin’s electrical rod smote the earth and out sprang…

ELEANOR HALL: To Thailand, and according to its leaders, it’s not a coup. But in the early hours of this morning, the country’s military imposed martial law, saying it wanted to ensure peace and security after six months of anti-government protests. Thailand’s acting justice minister says the government is still running the country, but two weeks…

The Afghan elections were hailed as a major victory for a country gripped by war and terror for over 35 years. Almost seven million voters – 36 percent of them women – came out to say a resounding “no” to the terror of the Taliban, and a clear “yes” to the ballot box. Yet the inconclusive results raise the danger of the return of several…

Hagel made the public pledge in a statement at talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister

Both men spoke of the disputed Iranian nuclear program, which is the topic of negotiations this week in Vienna

Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I want to assure you of the United States’ commitment to ensuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon — and that America will do what we must to live up to that commitment,” Hagel said.etween Western powers and Iran.

“We’ve been saying all along that Iran is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the international community,” Netanyahu said in a statement while standing beside Hagel.

He cited a United Nations report on what he called “Iran’s ongoing effort to deceive the international community to continue to develop ICBMs and to continue to violate its commitments of security council stipulations on forbidding it to develop certain parts of its nuclear program.”

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media ahead of a meeting with U.S.

“They continue to do that and I think that requires a very clear and firm policy on the part of world powers,” Netanyahu said.

The Israeli leader said, “we must not let the ayatollahs win, we mustn’t let the foremost terrorist state of our time, Iran, develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons.”

Hagel was wrapping up a four-day Middle East visit that began Tuesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he met with defense leaders from Persian Gulf nations with longstanding security ties to the Unites States.

Hagel’s trip coincided with international talks in Vienna with Iran aimed at drafting a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program, which is a top-priority issue for the Gulf Arab states as well as for Israel.

The Iranian government says it has no intention of building a nuclear bomb.

Improving relations with Iran has been a high foreign policy priority for President Barack Obama, and the Vienna talks have raised hopes of meaningful progress on the nuclear issue

In Saudi Arabia Hagel said that “under no circumstance” will the U.S. sacrifice its allies’ interests in order to make a nuclear deal with Iran.

More broadly, Hagel’s talks in Saudi Arabia were intended to persuade the sometimes fractious Gulf states to collaborate on missile defense and other security initiatives. They agreed to meet more frequently to discuss these issues but announced no new steps toward an integrated air and missile defense system.

In Israel, Hagel made a brief visit Thursday to an air base where U.S. and Israeli forces were preparing to begin a missile defense exercise, dubbed Juniper Cobra, using computer simulation of potential attack scenarios and post-attack disaster responses.

Washington has been trying for more than two decades to get the Gulf states to do more collectively in their own defense, with limited results. Then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney began that push in 1991 in the aftermath of the Gulf War, which began when Iraq invaded a largely defenseless Kuwait and the U.S. came to its defense by deploying about 500,000 troops to the Gulf and drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

Since then, many of the Gulf states have bought billions of dollars worth of American weaponry, including missile defense systems like the Patriot. But the defenses have not been integrated and thus have limited capabilities against a potential Iranian missile barrage.

The nonchalance with which the West has been observing the slow decomposition of the Palestinian social fabric in Gaza in its eighth year of Israeli blockade amounts to a level of criminal complicity in the face of international law. The ongoing Israeli blockade – recently in full cooperation with Egypt – of the tiny coastal strip has been defined...

Travel deals JERUSALEM – (AP) — Israel‘s ex-Prime MinisterEhud Olmert was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday for his part in a wide-ranging bribery case. While he appears set to become the first Israeli prime minister to head to prison, he is the latest in a string of politicians sentenced to time behind bars. The following is a glance…

DONETSK/SLAVIANSK, Ukraine: Pro-Moscow rebels declared a resounding victory in a referendum on self-rule for eastern Ukraine, with some saying that meant independence and others eventual union with Russia as fighting flared in a conflict increasingly out of control. Organizers in the main region holding the makeshift vote on Sunday said nearly 90…

We’ve heard it all before – Iraq is on the brink of disintegration. Sectarian tension and violence is spiking, al-Qaeda is running amok through the country and theKurds are threatening to break away. The post-Saddam political architecture has brought not democracy, but a new authoritarian strongman in the form of Nouri al-Maliki. As Iraq emerges…

With the negotiations on a comprehensive nuclear deal reconvening next Tuesday in Vienna, a vocal minority of hardliners have turned up the heat on PresidentHassan Rouhani and his nuclear team, regarding them as too soft. Last weekend, the president’s opponents gathered at a meeting they called “We’re Worried”. They voiced…

All-party committee demands reforms to make security and intelligence services accountable in wake of disclosures The report says the current system of oversight of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, pictured, is ‘designed to scrutinise the work of George Smiley, not the 21st-century reality’. Photograph: Barry Batchelor/PA EdwardSnowden‘s disclosures of the…

By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hundreds of Syrian rebels on Wednesday abandoned their last stronghold in the heart of Homs city, an epicenter of the revolt against PresidentBashar al-Assad, handing him a symbolic victory weeks before his likely re-election. Two convoys of buses snaked their way through the crumbling ruins of the besieged….

Added At: 2014-05-07 8:01 AM Last Updated At: 2014-05-07 8:06 AM The Himalayan Times – Saved Articles(s) The headlines has been added to your saved article(s) ToView your saved article(s)please Click Here » Close Reuters Election officials work in a classroom that has been transformed into a voting…

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former military chief who removed Egypt‘s Islamist president and is poised to win the upcoming presidential election, has said theMuslim Brotherhood will never return as an organisation. Mr el-Sissi also accused the Brotherhood of using militant groups as cover to destabilise the country. Speaking the first TV interview…

Russia hopes to initiate peace talks in coming days between Ukrainian authorities and rebellious eastern regions even as Kiev presses on with its military crackdown on anti-government protesters. “I think new efforts will be undertaken in the next few days to bring to the negotiating table Kiev’s authorities and representatives of the…

Ukraine’s PM has blamed the country’s security services for failing to stop violence in the southern city of Odessa that left more than 40 people dead. Michael Huang was on the phone to a friend in Kiev when the violence started.

At least two different audio sources recorded the tapes, the experts concluded, and one of those recordings may have been a digital recorder held up to a speaker.

The recordings were published for the first time on Thursday, and analysts who listened to the recordings told NBC that they noticed at least four clear breaks in the audio that indicated edits.

“It’s very strange,” audio-video forensic expert Ed Primeau of Primeau Forensics told NBC. “At approximately 1:14 … it sounds like someone is holding a digital recorder up to a speaker, so it’s a microphone-to-speaker transfer of that information. That’s a pretty big deal because it raises the first red flag about there possibly being some editing.”

Gibson said that the tapes indicated that “Malaysian authorities or whoever presented this made edits for whatever reason.” He added that “it’s not the way to handle evidence,” but it also doesn’t necessarily imply anything about the investigation.

“Unfortunately, there are no smoking guns, except there are edits. And there are clear edits,” Gibson told NBC.

At 1:30 a.m. on March 8, the plane carrying 239 people dropped off air-traffic-control screens, less than an hour into a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No one knows where it went after that. Investigators think it’s somewhere off the west coast of Australia.

Three years ago today, US Special Forces killed Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabadcompound. Occurring in the midst of the Arab Spring revolutions that were taking root, the death of al-Qaeda’s leader seemed to represent a defining moment. Not only had the group lost its leader, its entire ideology was being discredited by regime changes occurring…

The InternationalMonetary Fund has approved a $17bn two-year loan programme for Ukraine, as Kiev continues to fight pro-Moscow separatists in the east of the country. Wednesday’s action by the IMF’s 24-member executive board, which includes representatives from Russia and the United States, opens the way for an immediate release of…

Canary Wharf was possible target: convict

Al-Qaeda considered an attack on London’sCanary Wharf just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, a British terror convict, reportedly hugged by former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and allegedly dispatched to blow up a US jetliner, said on Monday. Al-Qaeda recruit Saajid Badat, 35, made the revelation while testifying against British cleric Abu Hamza, on trial in New York on multiple terror charges. Badat expanded on his earlier testimony last month at the trial of bin Laden’s son-in-law, when he said al-Qaeda had an almanac of the world’s tallest buildings. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept….more »

TEHRAN: PresidentHassan Rouhani defended a potential nuclear deal with the Weston Tuesday, insisting that an agreement would benefit the majority of Iranians, while encountering resistance. In a primetime interview lasting 90 minutes, Rouhani, who is under growing pressure from hardliners and hard-pressed citizens, stood by the steps taken…

Narendra Modi, the man tipped to be India‘s next prime minister, has voted in hishome state of Gujarat in the seventh phase of India’s poll. He cast his vote at a school in the city of Ahmedabad. All 26 seats are up for grabs in the state on Wednesday. Transport hubs in the city are bursting with people returning to their homes to vote,…

Merkel Warns Putin: You Have Failed The Peace Process, And New Sanctions Are Coming

The UNSecretary General has accused all parties in Syria‘s civil war of “flagrant violations” of international law over the delivery of aid. Ban Ki-moon urged theSecurity Council to act to implement a resolution passed in February demanding greater access. In his second report to the council on the…

KIEV, Ukraine — For two weeks, the mysteriously well-armed, professional gunmen known as “green men” have seized Ukrainian government sites in town after town, igniting a brush fire of separatist unrest across easternUkraine. Strenuous denials from the Kremlin have closely followed each accusation by Ukrainian officials that the world was witnessing a stealthy invasion by Russian forces.

Now, photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration on Sunday suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and intelligence forces — equipped in the same fashion as Russian special operations troops involved in annexing the Crimea region in February. Some of the men photographed in Ukraine have been identified in other photos clearly taken among Russian troops in other settings.

RAJNANDGAON, India (AP) — Indians cast ballots Thursday on the biggest day of voting in the country’s weekslong general election, streaming into polling stations even in areas where rebels threatened violence over the plight of India’s marginalized and poor. Nationwide voting began April 7 and runs through May 12, with results for the 543-seat…

US PresidentBarack Obama has urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to use his influence to make separatists in eastern Ukraine stand down. The phone call between the two leaders came as pro-Russian activists continued to occupy buildings in eastern towns. For his part, Mr Putin rejected accusations of Russian interference, calling the…

BEIRUT (AP) – Syrian government media and rebel forces said Saturday that poison gas had been used in a central village, injuring scores of people, while blaming each other for the attack. The main Western-backed opposition group, theSyrianNational Coalition, said the poison gas attack Friday hurt…

Ukraine‘s interior minister has announced the start of an anti-terrorist operation in the eastern city of Slaviansk, where pro-Russian protesters are holding security buildings. The police headquarters in two cities near Donetsk – Slaviansk andKramatorsk – are now under the control of separatists after further unrest in the…

French foreign minister on historic visit to Cuba

BY MARC FRANK

HAVANA Sat Apr 12, 2014

France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius leaves after the first cabinet meeting of the new government at the Elysee Palace in Paris, April 4, 2014.

Finance ministers and central bankers from around the world are in Washingtonfor the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund. A group of the world’s leading rich nations will support increasing…

April 10, 2014 — Updated 0337 GMT (1137 HKT) An official checks a voter’s identity card in Agartala, India, on Monday, April 7. India‘s general election will be held in stages over five weeks. Voters will elect 543 members to the lower house of parliament, which will then select the country’s next prime minister. Prime MinisterManmohan Singh is…

Wire reports attested that anonymous gunmen near Baghdad kidnapped and later executed six men on April 6, while another 11 people were killed across the country. In what were routine assassinations, police investigators stumbled on the bodies, all with gunshot wounds to the head. No one claimed responsibility for these slayings, or for most of the…

Zlatica Hoke WASHINGTON — The United States has warned Russia against stirring separatist sentiment in eastern Ukraine, following unrest in several cities in recent days. U.S. officials said there are clear signs that pro-Russian demonstrations were orchestrated from outside. Meanwhile, recent events in Ukraine have emboldened Russian-speaking…

Nehru-Gandhi heir and populist Hindu nationalist face off in Indian election

By Tim Hume, CNN

April 7, 2014

Biggest election world has ever seen

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

India’s general election will take five weeks and is the biggest election in history

814 million — more than combined populations of the U.S. and Western Europe — are eligible to vote

The race pits a controversial but popular Hindu nationalist against a member of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty

Analysts are describing the vote as India’s most significant in decades

Netanyahu: Israel wants peace talks but “not at any price”

An Afghan villager carries materials for Saturday’s election over his shoulders as he hikes to his village Friday along a country road high in the mountains of ShutulDistrict in northern Afghanistan. (ShahMarai, AFP/Getty Images) KABUL — They huddled in the rain under plastic sheeting. They ignored death threats and rattling firefights….

Afghanistan began voting Saturday for a new president amid fears of violence and insecurity. Thousands of Afghans lined up at polling centres in Kabul from early morning to cast their ballots. “This is a very good day for Afghans. People…

Putin’s Patriotism is Phony, His Desperation is Real

Russia’s president is gambling the future of his country to consolidate his grip on power. But his economy is in peril and the people who support him today may well revile him tomorrow.

There is a huge security operation in Afghanistan as presidential candidates prepare for Saturday’s vote. The new president will succeed Hamid Karzai, who has been in power since the 2001 fall of the Taliban but is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. It should be the first time that power is democratically…

Palestinian U.N. moves designed to avoid U.S. retaliation

You’ve probably heard about the recent leaked conversations involving Turkey. It was stunning to hear the highest-ranking Turks casually discussing how to provoke a false flag incident that would justify a large military intervention in Syria. This is a big deal because Turkish troops in Syria opens the door to NATO troops in Syria, which drastically expands the conflict. In case you didn’t know, a false flag is an incident that is designed to deceive people into thinking it was actually carried out by someone else. The same tactic is used by the world’s militaries and intelligence services to nefarious effect. Many believe the Reichstag fire incident that allowed Hitler to drastically expand his power was a false flag operation. So, why would the Turks propose doing such a thing in Syria?

Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is on trial for treason, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb went off shortly before his convoy was due to pass, police said. The bomb was planted on Musharraf‘s route from an army hospital where he has been staying since January to his home early on Thursday on the outskirts of…

By Urvashi Aneja Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. if you are interested in contributing. Recent events inUkraine have set off a slew of commentary about the start of a new cold war. Politicians and the media have highlighted the illegitimacy of the Crimeanreferendum and Russia‘s…

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/31/2014This is no plain modern event with civil unrest erupting because of an interconnected world. These are grassroots uprisings cross-fertilized perhaps from a world contagion yet they often have similarities – corrupt governments. Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela and Bosnia-Herzegovina are all middle-income democracies with elected leaders besieged by people angry at misgovernment, corruption and economic sclerosis. These days it is no longer just dictators who have something to fear from the crowd. This is the promise of Marxism that centralized planning and false promises are coming home and governments are too corrupt and incompetent to deliver what they have claimed for decades.

Four hours of US-Russia talks have failed to find a breakthrough on the crisis inUkraine, with the US demanding Russian troop withdrawals and Russia calling for a federal Ukraine. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and his US counterpart, John Kerry, said talks late on Sunday were…

Zlatica Hoke WASHINGTON — Russia has completed its military takeover of Crimea, as the Ukraine crisis continues. There also are reports that Moscow is amassing military forces on Russia’s borders with Ukraine. Western leaders are calling for a de-escalation of tensions and a diplomatic solution to the crisis. U.S. PresidentBarack Obama urged…

Salman Rushdie and Other Authors Urge Turkey to Lift Twitter Ban

Salman Rushdie is among dozens of writers urging Turkey to lift its social media banJim Spellman — WireImage

Dozens of famous writers have signed a letter protesting the country’s moves to block Internet sites

Dozens of notable authors have signed a joint letter from PEN International and English PENthat urges Turkey to reverse its nationwide ban on Twitter. The social media site was blocked last week after audio recordings suggesting corruption among the country’s officials were leaked. Earlier in March, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an had stated that he would not “leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook,” and on Thursday Turkish media outlets reported that YouTube had also been blocked in the country as well.

The letter, which champions “the freedom of words,” was signed by illustrious writers from Turkey and around the world, including Orhan Pamuk, Zadie Smith, Salman Rushdie, Graeme Gibson, Margaret Atwood and Karl Ove Knausgård, among others.

The open letter begins:

We, the signatories named below, are writers from around the world who love, live and breathe words. We are united in our belief that freedom of expression is a universal and fundamental human right. We hereby express our grave concern with regard to “the freedom of words” in Turkey today.

As human beings we connect both within and across borders through words, written and spoken. A free exchange of ideas is essential for democracy, as well as for creativity, empathy and tolerance. As shown in a recent PEN report on last year’s protests,Turkey has a wide range of free expression issues, from criminal defamation to self-censorship within the mainstream media and from police violence against journalists to a narrowing sphere for freedom of expression on the internet.

Turkey ranks 154th among 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index. To this day, translators, editors, publishers, poets and writers face criminal proceedings and even imprisonment for legitimate expression under a variety of legislative fetters.

The letter goes on to urge Turkish authorities “to remember that this beautiful country will be stronger and happier when, and if, it appreciates pluralism, diversity and the freedom of words.”

China Doesn’t Back Russia’s Invasion Of Crimea — And That’s A Big Problem For Putin

AP Photo/Matt Dunham, PoolRussian President Vladimir Putin gestures while speaking during a media conference after a G-8 summit at the Lough Erne golf resort in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 18, 2013.

If you think of climate change as a hazard for some far-off polar bears years from now, you’re mistaken. That’s the message from top climate scientists gathering inJapan this week to assess the impact of global warming. In fact, they will say, the dangers of a warming Earth are immediate and very human. “The polar bear is us,” says PatriciaRomero…

Egypt: The Revolution’s Last Stand

Students continue to protest en masse at Egyptian universities, but the military and security forces are closing in on them.

CAIRO, Egypt—To the extent the Egyptian revolution that started in Tahrir Square more than three years ago still survives at all, it does so on university campuses. And all sides know that is where it will live—or where it will die…

The search for the missing MalaysiaAirways plane with 239 people on board has now entered its third week. International search teams moved their focus to the southern Indian Ocean three days ago after apparent sightings of debris, but nothing has been found. Flight MH370 dropped out of contact an hour after leavingKuala Lumpur en route to…

Article by WN.com Correspondent DallasDarling Until Raphael Lemkin, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Europe who became a Polish-Jewish jurist at Nuremburg, formulated a term to describe “the intentional destruction of national groups on the basis of their collective identity,”(1) “genocide” was merely “a crime without a name.”(2) But because of…

Putin Claims Crimea as Part of Russia, Railing Against Slights From the West PhotosJoin the Discussion (EDS: REPEATING for all needing: SUBS throughout for a complete writethru to RECAST, RESTRUCTURE and ADD detail; RECODES as a Page1 story; ADDS photo numbers to art note; ADDS note for related stories; SUBS byline and contributor note; SUBS…

What’s Happening

A Plausible Scenario Of What Happened To Flight 370

The homes of the two pilots are searched as it is confirmed one of them spoke the final words heard from flight MH370.

The scenario that best fits the facts is a spontaneously initiated “drastic political protest” by the captain that went awry.

At long last, a plausible scenario of what happened to Flight 370 has emerged. By plausible I mean that the scenario fits all the known facts.

The key piece of evidence has finally been released by Malaysian authorities: Pilot Spoke to Air Controllers After Shutoff of Data System (NYT.com).

This proves that one of the pilots turned off the ACARS communications link and then reported to air traffic control (ATC) as if all was normal. Twelve minutes later, one of the pilots switched off the aircraft’s transponder, which transmits the aircraft’s altitude and location.

This sequence of events more or less proves that one of the pilots was in charge of the aircraft. Given the lack of evidence of duress, this sequence strongly suggests one of the pilots was executing a plan of his own rather than following orders of hijackers.

Given the strong political views of the captain and his mastery of the Boeing 777, all evidence points to the captain as the pilot who turned off the communication links and was in command of the aircraft thereafter.

Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah, a father-of-three, was said to be a ‘fanatical’ supporter of the country’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim – jailed for homosexuality just hours before the jet disappeared.

It has also been revealed that the pilot’s wife and three children moved out of the family home the day before the plane went missing.Anwar Ibrahim is a broadly popular democracy icon and former deputy prime minister whose prosecution on a charge of sodomy is seen by many Malaysians as political persecution.

‘Colleagues made it clear to us that he was someone who held strong political beliefs and was strident in his support for Anwar Ibrahim,’ another investigation source said. ‘We were told by one colleague he was obsessed with politics.’

What makes this significant is the Malaysian authorities’ attempts to suppress this possible motive.

Malaysian officials initially appeared keen not to direct any suspicion towards Zaharie or his co-pilot, 27-year-old Fariq Abdul Hamid, who was last week revealed to have invited two women passengers into the cockpit and smoked on an earlier flight to Phuket.

But evidence of the way the plane’s transponder and communication systems were disabled and the way the plane was expertly flown over the Indian Ocean apparently using navigational waypoints meant only a skilled aviator could have been at the controls. Investigators were also baffled by why, if hijackers took over the plane, there was no Mayday call or signal from the two pilots to say the cockpit had been breached.

Thus we have motive and clear evidence that it was the captain, not the co-pilot, who was in command of Flight 370. Enraged by the Soviet-style show-trial and imprisonment of his political hero, the captain may have “sabotaged the flight as a form of drastic political protest.” Flight 370: Was Hijacking The Pilot’s Political Revenge?

Now add in that neither the co-pilot nor the captain requested each other, and it seems increasing likely that the captain was making it up as he went along, applying his deep knowledge of the aircraft and navigation to sketch out a makeshift initial plan that was dynamically modified along the way.

I think we can easily trace a plausible series of steps the captain initially took, and then speculate knowledgeably about the challenges and decision trees that arose later in the flight.

The first challenge would be to render the co-pilot unable to contest his control of the aircraft. The easiest way would have been to dissolve a sedative in a beverage and coax the co-pilot into drinking the Mickey Finn.

The “mumbling co-pilot” heard by the airline pilot flying to Japan who radioed Flight 370 offers tantalizing (if scant) evidence of this. (Interestingly, that pilot was confident he spoke with the co-pilot, not the captain.)

Alternatively, the co-pilot fought for control of the aircraft, one explanation of the abrupt climb to 45,000, well above the aircraft’s designed ceiling.

If there was a struggle, clearly the co-pilot lost that battle or had already been incapacitated by other means.

Another explanation for the climb to 45,000 feet and the subsequent drop to 23,000 feet is that the captain sought to deprive the passengers of oxygen for long enough to render them unconscious but not long enough to kill them.

Given the profile of the captain that is emerging, I see little evidence of a personality who would set out to kill everyone on board, including himself. I believe the evidence strongly suggests a political motive, to embarrass the Malaysian government and perhaps to do so by seeking asylum in another country.

Once again, the key here is to understand the incomplete nature of the captain’s plan: after the initial phase was successful–turning off the ACARS and transponder, incapacitating the co-pilot, and moving beyond the range of Malaysia’s military radar– a number of destinations might have occurred to the captain. It’s important to note that flying was not just the captain’s vocation, it was also his hobby. I think it is safe to say his life revolved around aviation and flying.

Data showing the number of plausible runways where the plane could have touched down – which need to be at least 5,000ft – offer a baffling number of potential locations.

According to a map drawn up by U.S. radio station WNYC, there are 634 locations which could fit, from Australia to the Maldives to Pakistan.However, the true number is likely to be even higher, as estimates of how far the plane could have travelled have been increased since the calculations were carried out.

Here is the best current map of the possible routes of Flight 370. I have added the decision tree the captain faced: either fly north and seek political asylum or a remote landing site or fly south and search for a remote landing site.

If the co-pilot had regained control of the aircraft, either alone or with the aid of crew and passengers, he would have first turned on the ACARS and transponder and sent a Mayday signal. Since this didn’t happen, we can be confident that the captain was in command of Flight 370 for the duration of the flight–roughly 7.5 hours.

While we don’t know if the aircraft landed at some point, we do know the last ping to the satellite was at 8:11 a.m., roughly 6 hours after the last military radar contact.

Here are some other points to consider:

The fact that the Malaysian authorities withheld the sequence of events in the cockpit strongly suggest that they quickly identified the potential for a political motivation for the flight deviation and sought to suppress speculation along this line of inquiry.

This also explains why they withheld the military radar data for three days, and their continuing reluctance to share information or come clean about what they know. They fear the truth, and with good reason.

The captain’s home flight simulator suggests that he may well have practiced all sorts of landing scenarios, just out of curiosity or to sharpen his skills in outlier situations. Think about it: if you already have over 18,000 hours in the cockpits of advanced aircraft, you’re not going to practice conventional landings you could do in your sleep. That would be beyond boring to someone of his experience.

Given the few hours the captain had to assemble his plan, it is likely that once the initial phase was successful, he might have changed his mind, perhaps more than once.

Given his long experience in aviation, I think it very likely that he knew that the primary and military radars in the region were usually turned off at night. Off-the-record confirmations of this have come from Thailand and Indian officials with knowledge of radar covering the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Thus it is not surprising there were no primary radar sightings in the region: most or perhaps all of the radars were turned off.

It’s also worth noting that most of the primary radars in the region have limited ranges–100 miles or less appears to be average. It is more than possible to thread a flight through the gaps in coverage, even if the radars were active.

Let’s assume my speculation is accurate and the captain had no intention of crashing the 777 and killing all on board. As I noted in my first entry on Flight 370, if that was his intention (or simply suicide), why fly for hours? Despite his best intentions, he may have encountered some problem that he responded to incorrectly; it’s even possible that he missed his intended destination or became confused about his location.

The scenario that best fits the facts is a spontaneously initiated “drastic political protest” by the captain that went awry, despite his intentions and experience.

One last thought: since the U.S. must monitor potential airborne threats and nuclear explosions virtually everywhere on the planet (with the exception of Antarctica), why wouldn’t the U.S. have wide-aperture thermal imaging assets in space? And if the U.S. has space-based thermal imaging assets, would they be so low quality that the heat signature from two large jet engines would not show up? That seems unlikely.

Since it has long been known that the U.S. has “wired the oceans for sound,” (SUBMARINES, SECRETS, AND SPIES – NOVA/PBS) it’s also likely that the sound of a large aircraft hitting the water would also have been detected, regardless of the remoteness of the location.

All of which is to say that it seems probable that the global and space-based intelligence gathering assets of the U.S. recorded some sort of signals that could provide clues to the final resting spot of Flight 370.

SYDNEY, March 17 (Reuters) – Australia has accepted a request from Malaysia to take charge of the “southern vector” of the search for a Malaysia Airlines jetliner missing for more than a week with 239 people on board, Prime MinisterTony Abbott said on Monday. Abbott said he had offered additional surveillance resources to bolster the two…

EU foreign ministers are due to discuss further sanctions against Russia after a Moscow-backed referendum in Crimea backed a split from Ukraine. The 28-member bloc is considering a visa ban and an asset freeze against a number ofRussian officials. More than 95% of Crimean voters backed joining Russia, local officials said. Moscow says it will…

AL-LAFITAAT (Egypt): Egypt’s army says it is crushing Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula, but in the region’s villages and towns a victory for the state feels a long way off. In a rare visit to eight villages in NorthernSinai last week, a Reuters reporter saw widespread destruction caused by army operations, but also found evidence…

See Also Syria‘s civil war enters a fourth year Saturday, with at least 146,000 people dead, millions more homeless, cities and historical treasures in ruins, the economy devastated and no end in sight. On March 15, 2011, just weeks after popular uprisings toppled dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, protests erupted in Syria’s southern city of Daraa…

Arab Spring Reuters March 14, 2014 – 14:20 By RaniaEl GamalSANAA (Reuters) – Dozens of Saudi Islamist militants have left the battlefields of Syria and Iraq forYemen, where their experience appears to have contributed to a spate of lethal al Qaeda attacks, a senior Yemeni security official said. The influx detected in the last few months is…

Berlin could have blocked even such modest retaliation. But it did not. This new tack reflects — what? For one, Germany is no longer threatened by Soviet shock armies ensconced at the gates of Hamburg. Second, the Kremlin’s gas weapon — Germany gets about 37 percent of its gas from Gazprom — has become a bit blunt. The EU’s reserves are overflowing, and farther down the line beckons America’s gas bonanza. Third, the Germans are watching the U.S., their old “security lender of the last resort,” going into retraction mode. Hence, a fresh look at self-help.

Where The Russian Troops Are – The Full “Pre-Takeover” Infographic

Submitted on 03/13/2014

We provide this map showing the latest distribution of Russian military forces along the Ukraine borders so that readers can make up their own mind if, as John Kerry says, “Russia doesn’t yet have forces for Ukraine Takeover.“

KERRY SAYS `CONTINGENCIES’ IF RUSSIA MOVED INTO EAST UKRAINE

China Warns West Not To Enforce Sanctions Against Russia

“Sanctions could lead to retaliatory action, and that would trigger a spiral with unforeseeable consequences,” warns China’s envoy to Germany adding that “we don’t see any point in sanctions.” On the heels of Merkel’s warning that Russia risked “massive” political and economic damage if it did not change course, Reuters reports ambassador Shi Mingde urged patience saying “the door is still open” for diplomacy (though we suspect it is not) ahead of this weekend’s referendum. Russia’s Deputy Economy Minister Alexei Likhachev responded by promising “symmetrical” sanctions by Moscow. So now we have China joining the fray more aggressively.